Do We Really Want To Bet Our Lives On the Dems?

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Skipjack
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Post by Skipjack »

"miss me yet?"
Nope, still dont, sorry.

Betruger
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Post by Betruger »

AcesHigh wrote:Just ask canadians, britons, french, japanese, spaniards, swedes, dannish, etc, etc, if they think their public healthcare systems are so bad.
That'd be me. It is that bad. Unless you like living in a system choked that way.

JLawson
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Post by JLawson »

Betruger wrote:
AcesHigh wrote:Just ask canadians, britons, french, japanese, spaniards, swedes, dannish, etc, etc, if they think their public healthcare systems are so bad.
That'd be me. It is that bad. Unless you like living in a system choked that way.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... water.html

More and more this 'Government Health Care' idea's looking like a bad bet. I realize there's going to be some cases where the support and aftercare isn't going to be all it should be, but it's really seeming like England's medical system has institutionalized the problem, not remedied it. Something like this happens in the US, and there's an outcry for change. In the UK, it seems regrettable, but not unexpected.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... rates.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... epens.html

And this...

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style ... 09907.html
Andy Burnham, the Health Secretary, announced an unprecedented five separate reviews of measures to protect patients yesterday, in response to an independent inquiry into failings at the Mid-Staffordshire Foundation Trust which concluded that it "routinely neglected" patients.

It is the biggest shake-up in the monitoring of the NHS since the Bristol children's heart surgery scandal of the mid-1990s, in which babies lost their lives because doctors were not being properly checked. That scandal led to the establishment of regulatory mechanisms to protect patients which the catastrophe at Mid-Staffordshire has now shown to have comprehensively failed.
Maybe all they need is more money, that way they can afford to give their patients water!

Snark aside, it's looking more like being hospitalized in the UK is akin to playing Russian Roulette. You go in, and there's a significant chance that no matter your original complaint, you ain't going to be as good coming out as you were going in - and you might be leaving by body bag.

Government oversight is one thing - government control and operation another thing entirely!
When opinion and reality conflict - guess which one is going to win in the long run.

MSimon
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Post by MSimon »

British hospitals are roach hotels:

http://bimchat.wordpress.com/2008/08/06 ... you-vomit/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/artic ... ation.html

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/u ... 469809.ece
http://www.john-goodman-blog.com/pests- ... tarvation/

One British newspaper went so far as to rebrand the National Health Service (NHS) the "National Filth Service" [link]. Two thirds to three quarters of NHS hospitals reportedly have pest problems that include plagues of rats, maggot infestations, flies, wasp nests, flying ants, bed bugs, fleas, and cockroaches in wards, kitchens, sterile areas, and operating rooms [link]. In the past, the NHS has also "put patient lives at risk" [link] with poor clinical waste management that breaches UK health and safety regulation, fire regulations, and hazardous waste regulations [link].

NHS hospitals also have problems with relatively straightforward tasks like food service. Rats infect hospital kitchens, even in relatively new buildings [link]. Environmental health officer reports from a quarter of English local hospital authorities suggest that 46 percent had poor cleanliness in their food service operations and 18 percent did not fulfill the legal requirements for storing food. Other problems include no soap or hot water at sinks, dirty or moldy equipment, and failure to follow safety procedures. [link]

A detailed listing of hospital food service problems notes that "no hospital kitchen has been shut down by health inspectors – although catering establishments in the private sector are regularly taken to court." [link]

For some patients, a bigger problem is getting fed at all. At least 30,000 patients were starving in NHS wards in 2007 [link]. Cases of starvation rose 88 percent between 2005 and 2007. Cases of nurses handing out meals who put food out of reach of bedridden patients, come back 15 minutes later and take it away have been documented. So have cases of food arriving in wrappings that patients cannot undo. [link]
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.

Diogenes
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Post by Diogenes »

I originally thought of posting some examples, but it occurred to me that anyone who has the slightest familiarity with this issue, probably already knows about the various problems reported with the NHS. And those that don't? Why are they talking out of ignorance?

JLawson
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Post by JLawson »

Diogenes wrote:I originally thought of posting some examples, but it occurred to me that anyone who has the slightest familiarity with this issue, probably already knows about the various problems reported with the NHS. And those that don't? Why are they talking out of ignorance?
Because they're enamored with the idea of 'free', never bothering to look for the hook embedded in it. Whenever someone starts pushing the idea of 'free' - whether it's a 'free trip', or a 'free TV', or a 'free upgrade', or 'free energy', or 'free medical care' - there's going to be a payment for it embedded somewhere in the system. There's no such thing as 'free' - the cost is simply shifted elsewhere. As long as those pushing for 'free health care' don't see THEMSELVES as paying the cost, they'll be for it - no matter how high the cost may be to others..
When opinion and reality conflict - guess which one is going to win in the long run.

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